Contextual-based display devices and methods of operating the same

ABSTRACT

A device includes a microprocessor and a computer readable medium coupled to the microprocessor. The computer readable medium includes instructions stored thereon that cause the microprocessor to receive output from at least one sensor monitoring a travel context of a vehicle and determine, based on the output received, a condition of the vehicle. The instructions cause the microprocessor to determine, based on the determined condition of the vehicle, to alter a first presentation of information displayed to a display device of the vehicle to a second presentation of the information displayed to the display device. The instructions cause the microprocessor to render the second presentation of the information to the display device of the vehicle to replace the first presentation of the information displayed to the display device of the vehicle.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefits of and priority, under 35U.S.C. §119(e), to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/359,563,filed on Jul. 7, 2016, entitled “Next Generation Vehicle;” and62/378,348, filed Aug. 23, 2016, entitled “Next Generation Vehicle.” Theentire disclosures of the applications listed above are herebyincorporated by reference, in their entirety, for all that they teachand for all purposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure is generally directed to vehicle systems, inparticular, toward electric and/or hybrid-electric vehicles.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, transportation methods have changed substantially. Thischange is due in part to a concern over the limited availability ofnatural resources, a proliferation in personal technology, and asocietal shift to adopt more environmentally friendly transportationsolutions. These considerations have encouraged the development of anumber of new flexible-fuel vehicles, hybrid-electric vehicles, andelectric vehicles.

While these vehicles appear to be new they are generally implemented asa number of traditional subsystems that are merely tied to analternative power source. In fact, the design and construction of thevehicles is limited to standard frame sizes, shapes, materials, andtransportation concepts. Among other things, these limitations fail totake advantage of the benefits of new technology, power sources, andsupport infrastructure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a vehicle in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a plan view of the vehicle in accordance with at least someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows a plan view of the vehicle in accordance with embodimentsof the present disclosure

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of the instrument panel of the vehicleaccording to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an electrical system ofthe vehicle;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a power generation unitassociated with the electrical system of the vehicle;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an embodiment of power storage associatedwith the electrical system of the vehicle;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an embodiment of loads associated with theelectrical system of the vehicle;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a communications subsystemof the vehicle;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a computing environment associated withthe embodiments presented herein;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a computing device associated with one ormore components described herein;

FIG. 12 shows a vehicle in an environment in accordance with embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 illustrates one or more sensors of a vehicle in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 14A illustrates one embodiment of a first presentation ofinformation on a travel context-adjusted display device of a vehicle;

FIG. 14B illustrates one embodiment of a second presentation ofinformation on a travel context-adjusted display device of a vehicle;

FIG. 15 illustrates example operations of the controller/microprocessor920 according to at least one embodiment;

FIG. 16 illustrates example operations of the controller/microprocessor920 according to at least one embodiment; and

FIG. 17 illustrates an example look-up-table (LUT) that assists withdetermining effects for rendering for the second presentation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in connectionwith a vehicle, and in some embodiments, an electric vehicle,rechargeable electric vehicle, and/or hybrid-electric vehicle andassociated systems.

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a vehicle 100 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. The electric vehicle 100comprises a vehicle front 110, vehicle aft 120, vehicle roof 130, atleast one vehicle side 160, a vehicle undercarriage 140, and a vehicleinterior 150. In any event, the vehicle 100 may include a frame 104 andone or more body panels 108 mounted or affixed thereto. The vehicle 100may include one or more interior components (e.g., components inside aninterior space 150, or user space, of a vehicle 100, etc.), exteriorcomponents (e.g., components outside of the interior space 150, or userspace, of a vehicle 100, etc.), drive systems, controls systems,structural components, etc.

Although shown in the form of a car, it should be appreciated that thevehicle 100 described herein may include any conveyance or model of aconveyance, where the conveyance was designed for the purpose of movingone or more tangible objects, such as people, animals, cargo, and thelike. The term “vehicle” does not require that a conveyance moves or iscapable of movement. Typical vehicles may include but are in no waylimited to cars, trucks, motorcycles, busses, automobiles, trains,railed conveyances, boats, ships, marine conveyances, submarineconveyances, airplanes, space craft, flying machines, human-poweredconveyances, and the like.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a plan view of a vehicle 100 will be describedin accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. As providedabove, the vehicle 100 may comprise a number of electrical and/ormechanical systems, subsystems, etc. The mechanical systems of thevehicle 100 can include structural, power, safety, and communicationssubsystems, to name a few. While each subsystem may be describedseparately, it should be appreciated that the components of a particularsubsystem may be shared between one or more other subsystems of thevehicle 100.

The structural subsystem includes the frame 104 of the vehicle 100. Theframe 104 may comprise a separate frame and body construction (i.e.,body-on-frame construction), a unitary frame and body construction(i.e., a unibody construction), or any other construction defining thestructure of the vehicle 100. The frame 104 may be made from one or morematerials including, but in no way limited to steel, titanium, aluminum,carbon fiber, plastic, polymers, etc., and/or combinations thereof. Insome embodiments, the frame 104 may be formed, welded, fused, fastened,pressed, etc., combinations thereof, or otherwise shaped to define aphysical structure and strength of the vehicle 100. In any event, theframe 104 may comprise one or more surfaces, connections, protrusions,cavities, mounting points, tabs, slots, or other features that areconfigured to receive other components that make up the vehicle 100. Forexample, the body panels 108, powertrain subsystem, controls systems,interior components, communications subsystem, and safety subsystem mayinterconnect with, or attach to, the frame 104 of the vehicle 100.

The frame 104 may include one or more modular system and/or subsystemconnection mechanisms. These mechanisms may include features that areconfigured to provide a selectively interchangeable interface for one ormore of the systems and/or subsystems described herein. The mechanismsmay provide for a quick exchange, or swapping, of components whileproviding enhanced security and adaptability over conventionalmanufacturing or attachment. For instance, the ability to selectivelyinterchange systems and/or subsystems in the vehicle 100 allow thevehicle 100 to adapt to the ever-changing technological demands ofsociety and advances in safety. Among other things, the mechanisms mayprovide for the quick exchange of batteries, capacitors, power sources208A, 208B, motors 212, engines, safety equipment, controllers, userinterfaces, interiors exterior components, body panels 108, bumpers 216,sensors, etc., and/or combinations thereof. Additionally oralternatively, the mechanisms may provide unique security hardwareand/or software embedded therein that, among other things, can preventfraudulent or low quality construction replacements from being used inthe vehicle 100. Similarly, the mechanisms, subsystems, and/or receivingfeatures in the vehicle 100 may employ poka-yoke, or mistake-proofing,features that ensure a particular mechanism is always interconnectedwith the vehicle 100 in a correct position, function, etc.

By way of example, complete systems or subsystems may be removed and/orreplaced from a vehicle 100 utilizing a single-minute exchange (“SME”)principle. In some embodiments, the frame 104 may include slides,receptacles, cavities, protrusions, and/or a number of other featuresthat allow for quick exchange of system components. In one embodiment,the frame 104 may include tray or ledge features, mechanicalinterconnection features, locking mechanisms, retaining mechanisms,etc., and/or combinations thereof. In some embodiments, it may bebeneficial to quickly remove a used power source 208A, 208B (e.g.,battery unit, capacitor unit, etc.) from the vehicle 100 and replace theused power source 208A, 208B with a charged or new power source.Continuing this example, the power source 208A, 208B may includeselectively interchangeable features that interconnect with the frame104 or other portion of the vehicle 100. For instance, in a power source208A, 208B replacement, the quick release features may be configured torelease the power source 208A, 208B from an engaged position and slideor move in a direction away from the frame 104 of a vehicle 100. Onceremoved, or separated from, the vehicle, the power source 208A, 208B maybe replaced (e.g., with a new power source, a charged power source,etc.) by engaging the replacement power source into a system receivingposition adjacent to the vehicle 100. In some embodiments, the vehicle100 may include one or more actuators configured to position, lift,slide, or otherwise engage the replacement power source with the vehicle100. In one embodiment, the replacement power source may be insertedinto the vehicle 100 or vehicle frame 104 with mechanisms and/ormachines that are external and/or separate from the vehicle 100.

In some embodiments, the frame 104 may include one or more featuresconfigured to selectively interconnect with other vehicles and/orportions of vehicles. These selectively interconnecting features canallow for one or more vehicles to selectively couple together anddecouple for a variety of purposes. For example, it is an aspect of thepresent disclosure that a number of vehicles may be selectively coupledtogether to share energy, increase power output, provide security,decrease power consumption, provide towing services, and/or provide arange of other benefits. Continuing this example, the vehicles may becoupled together based on travel route, destination, preferences,settings, sensor information, and/or some other data. The coupling maybe initiated by at least one controller of the vehicle and/or trafficcontrol system upon determining that a coupling is beneficial to one ormore vehicles in a group of vehicles or a traffic system. As can beappreciated, the power consumption for a group of vehicles traveling ina same direction may be reduced or decreased by removing any aerodynamicseparation between vehicles. In this case, the vehicles may be coupledtogether to subject only the foremost vehicle in the coupling to airand/or wind resistance during travel. In one embodiment, the poweroutput by the group of vehicles may be proportionally or selectivelycontrolled to provide a specific output from each of the one or more ofthe vehicles in the group.

The interconnecting, or coupling, features may be configured aselectromagnetic mechanisms, mechanical couplings, electromechanicalcoupling mechanisms, etc., and/or combinations thereof. The features maybe selectively deployed from a portion of the frame 104 and/or body ofthe vehicle 100. In some cases, the features may be built into the frame104 and/or body of the vehicle 100. In any event, the features maydeploy from an unexposed position to an exposed position or may beconfigured to selectively engage/disengage without requiring an exposureor deployment of the mechanism from the frame 104 and/or body of thevehicle 100. In some embodiments, the interconnecting features may beconfigured to interconnect one or more of power, communications,electrical energy, fuel, and/or the like. One or more of the power,mechanical, and/or communications connections between vehicles may bepart of a single interconnection mechanism. In some embodiments, theinterconnection mechanism may include multiple connection mechanisms. Inany event, the single interconnection mechanism or the interconnectionmechanism may employ the poka-yoke features as described above.

The power system of the vehicle 100 may include the powertrain, powerdistribution system, accessory power system, and/or any other componentsthat store power, provide power, convert power, and/or distribute powerto one or more portions of the vehicle 100. The powertrain may includethe one or more electric motors 212 of the vehicle 100. The electricmotors 212 are configured to convert electrical energy provided by apower source into mechanical energy. This mechanical energy may be inthe form of a rotational or other output force that is configured topropel or otherwise provide a motive force for the vehicle 100.

In some embodiments, the vehicle 100 may include one or more drivewheels 220 that are driven by the one or more electric motors 212 andmotor controllers 214. In some cases, the vehicle 100 may include anelectric motor 212 configured to provide a driving force for each drivewheel 220. In other cases, a single electric motor 212 may be configuredto share an output force between two or more drive wheels 220 via one ormore power transmission components. It is an aspect of the presentdisclosure that the powertrain may include one or more powertransmission components, motor controllers 214, and/or power controllersthat can provide a controlled output of power to one or more of thedrive wheels 220 of the vehicle 100. The power transmission components,power controllers, or motor controllers 214 may be controlled by atleast one other vehicle controller or computer system as describedherein.

As provided above, the powertrain of the vehicle 100 may include one ormore power sources 208A, 208B. These one or more power sources 208A,208B may be configured to provide drive power, system and/or subsystempower, accessory power, etc. While described herein as a single powersource 208 for sake of clarity, embodiments of the present disclosureare not so limited. For example, it should be appreciated thatindependent, different, or separate power sources 208A, 208B may providepower to various systems of the vehicle 100. For instance, a drive powersource may be configured to provide the power for the one or moreelectric motors 212 of the vehicle 100, while a system power source maybe configured to provide the power for one or more other systems and/orsubsystems of the vehicle 100. Other power sources may include anaccessory power source, a backup power source, a critical system powersource, and/or other separate power sources. Separating the powersources 208A, 208B in this manner may provide a number of benefits overconventional vehicle systems. For example, separating the power sources208A, 208B allow one power source 208 to be removed and/or replacedindependently without requiring that power be removed from all systemsand/or subsystems of the vehicle 100 during a power source 208removal/replacement. For instance, one or more of the accessories,communications, safety equipment, and/or backup power systems, etc., maybe maintained even when a particular power source 208A, 208B isdepleted, removed, or becomes otherwise inoperable.

In some embodiments, the drive power source may be separated into two ormore cells, units, sources, and/or systems. By way of example, a vehicle100 may include a first drive power source 208A and a second drive powersource 208B. The first drive power source 208A may be operatedindependently from or in conjunction with the second drive power source208B and vice versa. Continuing this example, the first drive powersource 208A may be removed from a vehicle while a second drive powersource 208B can be maintained in the vehicle 100 to provide drive power.This approach allows the vehicle 100 to significantly reduce weight(e.g., of the first drive power source 208A, etc.) and improve powerconsumption, even if only for a temporary period of time. In some cases,a vehicle 100 running low on power may automatically determine thatpulling over to a rest area, emergency lane, and removing, or “droppingoff,” at least one power source 208A, 208B may reduce enough weight ofthe vehicle 100 to allow the vehicle 100 to navigate to the closestpower source replacement and/or charging area. In some embodiments, theremoved, or “dropped off,” power source 208A may be collected by acollection service, vehicle mechanic, tow truck, or even another vehicleor individual.

The power source 208 may include a GPS or other geographical locationsystem that may be configured to emit a location signal to one or morereceiving entities. For instance, the signal may be broadcast ortargeted to a specific receiving party. Additionally or alternatively,the power source 208 may include a unique identifier that may be used toassociate the power source 208 with a particular vehicle 100 or vehicleuser. This unique identifier may allow an efficient recovery of thepower source 208 dropped off. In some embodiments, the unique identifiermay provide information for the particular vehicle 100 or vehicle userto be billed or charged with a cost of recovery for the power source208.

The power source 208 may include a charge controller 224 that may beconfigured to determine charge levels of the power source 208, control arate at which charge is drawn from the power source 208, control a rateat which charge is added to the power source 208, and/or monitor ahealth of the power source 208 (e.g., one or more cells, portions,etc.). In some embodiments, the charge controller 224 or the powersource 208 may include a communication interface. The communicationinterface can allow the charge controller 224 to report a state of thepower source 208 to one or more other controllers of the vehicle 100 oreven communicate with a communication device separate and/or apart fromthe vehicle 100. Additionally or alternatively, the communicationinterface may be configured to receive instructions (e.g., controlinstructions, charge instructions, communication instructions, etc.)from one or more other controllers or computers of the vehicle 100 or acommunication device that is separate and/or apart from the vehicle 100.

The powertrain includes one or more power distribution systemsconfigured to transmit power from the power source 208 to one or moreelectric motors 212 in the vehicle 100. The power distribution systemmay include electrical interconnections 228 in the form of cables,wires, traces, wireless power transmission systems, etc., and/orcombinations thereof. It is an aspect of the present disclosure that thevehicle 100 include one or more redundant electrical interconnections232 of the power distribution system. The redundant electricalinterconnections 232 can allow power to be distributed to one or moresystems and/or subsystems of the vehicle 100 even in the event of afailure of an electrical interconnection portion of the vehicle 100(e.g., due to an accident, mishap, tampering, or other harm to aparticular electrical interconnection, etc.). In some embodiments, auser of a vehicle 100 may be alerted via a user interface associatedwith the vehicle 100 that a redundant electrical interconnection 232 isbeing used and/or damage has occurred to a particular area of thevehicle electrical system. In any event, the one or more redundantelectrical interconnections 232 may be configured along completelydifferent routes than the electrical interconnections 228 and/or includedifferent modes of failure than the electrical interconnections 228 to,among other things, prevent a total interruption power distribution inthe event of a failure.

In some embodiments, the power distribution system may include an energyrecovery system 236. This energy recovery system 236, or kinetic energyrecovery system, may be configured to recover energy produced by themovement of a vehicle 100. The recovered energy may be stored aselectrical and/or mechanical energy. For instance, as a vehicle 100travels or moves, a certain amount of energy is required to accelerate,maintain a speed, stop, or slow the vehicle 100. In any event, a movingvehicle has a certain amount of kinetic energy. When brakes are appliedin a typical moving vehicle, most of the kinetic energy of the vehicleis lost as the generation of heat in the braking mechanism. In an energyrecovery system 236, when a vehicle 100 brakes, at least a portion ofthe kinetic energy is converted into electrical and/or mechanical energyfor storage. Mechanical energy may be stored as mechanical movement(e.g., in a flywheel, etc.) and electrical energy may be stored inbatteries, capacitors, and/or some other electrical storage system. Insome embodiments, electrical energy recovered may be stored in the powersource 208. For example, the recovered electrical energy may be used tocharge the power source 208 of the vehicle 100.

The vehicle 100 may include one or more safety systems. Vehicle safetysystems can include a variety of mechanical and/or electrical componentsincluding, but in no way limited to, low impact or energy-absorbingbumpers 216A, 216B, crumple zones, reinforced body panels, reinforcedframe components, impact bars, power source containment zones, safetyglass, seatbelts, supplemental restraint systems, air bags, escapehatches, removable access panels, impact sensors, accelerometers, visionsystems, radar systems, etc., and/or the like. In some embodiments, theone or more of the safety components may include a safety sensor orgroup of safety sensors associated with the one or more of the safetycomponents. For example, a crumple zone may include one or more straingages, impact sensors, pressure transducers, etc. These sensors may beconfigured to detect or determine whether a portion of the vehicle 100has been subjected to a particular force, deformation, or other impact.Once detected, the information collected by the sensors may betransmitted or sent to one or more of a controller of the vehicle 100(e.g., a safety controller, vehicle controller, etc.) or a communicationdevice associated with the vehicle 100 (e.g., across a communicationnetwork, etc.).

FIG. 3 shows a plan view of the vehicle 100 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. In particular, FIG. 3 shows abroken section 302 of a charging system 300 for the vehicle 100. Thecharging system 300 may include a plug or receptacle 304 configured toreceive power from an external power source (e.g., a source of powerthat is external to and/or separate from the vehicle 100, etc.). Anexample of an external power source may include the standard industrial,commercial, or residential power that is provided across power lines.Another example of an external power source may include a proprietarypower system configured to provide power to the vehicle 100. In anyevent, power received at the plug/receptacle 304 may be transferred viaat least one power transmission interconnection 308. Similar, if notidentical, to the electrical interconnections 228 described above, theat least one power transmission interconnection 308 may be one or morecables, wires, traces, wireless power transmission systems, etc., and/orcombinations thereof. Electrical energy in the form of charge can betransferred from the external power source to the charge controller 224.As provided above, the charge controller 224 may regulate the additionof charge to at least one power source 208 of the vehicle 100 (e.g.,until the at least one power source 208 is full or at a capacity, etc.).

In some embodiments, the vehicle 100 may include an inductive chargingsystem and inductive charger 312. The inductive charger 312 may beconfigured to receive electrical energy from an inductive power sourceexternal to the vehicle 100. In one embodiment, when the vehicle 100and/or the inductive charger 312 is positioned over an inductive powersource external to the vehicle 100, electrical energy can be transferredfrom the inductive power source to the vehicle 100. For example, theinductive charger 312 may receive the charge and transfer the charge viaat least one power transmission interconnection 308 to the chargecontroller 324 and/or the power source 208 of the vehicle 100. Theinductive charger 312 may be concealed in a portion of the vehicle 100(e.g., at least partially protected by the frame 104, one or more bodypanels 108, a shroud, a shield, a protective cover, etc., and/orcombinations thereof) and/or may be deployed from the vehicle 100. Insome embodiments, the inductive charger 312 may be configured to receivecharge only when the inductive charger 312 is deployed from the vehicle100. In other embodiments, the inductive charger 312 may be configuredto receive charge while concealed in the portion of the vehicle 100.

In addition to the mechanical components described herein, the vehicle100 may include a number of user interface devices. The user interfacedevices receive and translate human input into a mechanical movement orelectrical signal or stimulus. The human input may be one or more ofmotion (e.g., body movement, body part movement, in two-dimensional orthree-dimensional space, etc.), voice, touch, and/or physicalinteraction with the components of the vehicle 100. In some embodiments,the human input may be configured to control one or more functions ofthe vehicle 100 and/or systems of the vehicle 100 described herein. Userinterfaces may include, but are in no way limited to, at least onegraphical user interface of a display device, steering wheel ormechanism, transmission lever or button (e.g., including park, neutral,reverse, and/or drive positions, etc.), throttle control pedal ormechanism, brake control pedal or mechanism, power control switch,communications equipment, etc.

FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of the instrument panel 400 of the vehicle100. The instrument panel 400 of vehicle 100 comprises a steering wheel410, a vehicle operational display 420 (e.g., configured to presentand/or display driving data such as speed, measured air resistance,vehicle information, entertainment information, etc.), one or moreauxiliary displays 424 (e.g., configured to present and/or displayinformation segregated from the operational display 420, entertainmentapplications, movies, music, etc.), a heads-up display 434 (e.g.,configured to display any information previously described including,but in no way limited to, guidance information such as route todestination, or obstacle warning information to warn of a potentialcollision, or some or all primary vehicle operational data such asspeed, resistance, etc.), a power management display 428 (e.g.,configured to display data corresponding to electric power levels ofvehicle 100, reserve power, charging status, etc.), and an input device432 (e.g., a controller, touchscreen, or other interface deviceconfigured to interface with one or more displays in the instrumentpanel or components of the vehicle 100. The input device 432 may beconfigured as a joystick, mouse, touchpad, tablet, 3D gesture capturedevice, etc.). In some embodiments, the input device 432 may be used tomanually maneuver a portion of the vehicle 100 into a charging position(e.g., moving a charging plate to a desired separation distance, etc.).

While one or more of displays of instrument panel 400 may betouch-screen displays, it should be appreciated that the vehicleoperational display may be a display incapable of receiving touch input.For instance, the operational display 420 that spans across an interiorspace centerline 404 and across both a first zone 408A and a second zone408B may be isolated from receiving input from touch, especially from apassenger. In some cases, a display that provides vehicle operation orcritical systems information and interface may be restricted fromreceiving touch input and/or be configured as a non-touch display. Thistype of configuration can prevent dangerous mistakes in providing touchinput where such input may cause an accident or unwanted control.

In some embodiments, one or more displays of the instrument panel 400may be mobile devices and/or applications residing on a mobile devicesuch as a smart phone. Additionally or alternatively, any of theinformation described herein may be presented to one or more portions420A-N of the operational display 420 or other display 424, 428, 434. Inone embodiment, one or more displays of the instrument panel 400 may bephysically separated or detached from the instrument panel 400. In somecases, a detachable display may remain tethered to the instrument panel.

The portions 420A-N of the operational display 420 may be dynamicallyreconfigured and/or resized to suit any display of information asdescribed. Additionally or alternatively, the number of portions 420A-Nused to visually present information via the operational display 420 maybe dynamically increased or decreased as required, and are not limitedto the configurations shown.

An embodiment of the electrical system 500 associated with the vehicle100 may be as shown in FIG. 5. The electrical system 500 can includepower source(s) that generate power, power storage that stores power,and/or load(s) that consume power. Power sources may be associated witha power generation unit 504. Power storage may be associated with apower storage system 208. Loads may be associated with loads 508. Theelectrical system 500 may be managed by a power management controller224. Further, the electrical system 500 can include one or more otherinterfaces or controllers, which can include the billing and costcontrol unit 512.

The power generation unit 504 may be as described in conjunction withFIG. 6. The power storage component 208 may be as described inconjunction with FIG. 7. The loads 508 may be as described inconjunction with FIG. 8.

The billing and cost control unit 512 may interface with the powermanagement controller 224 to determine the amount of charge or powerprovided to the power storage 208 through the power generation unit 504.The billing and cost control unit 512 can then provide information forbilling the vehicle owner. Thus, the billing and cost control unit 512can receive and/or send power information to third party system(s)regarding the received charge from an external source. The informationprovided can help determine an amount of money required, from the ownerof the vehicle, as payment for the provided power. Alternatively, or inaddition, if the owner of the vehicle provided power to another vehicle(or another device/system), that owner may be owed compensation for theprovided power or energy, e.g., a credit.

The power management controller 224 can be a computer or computingsystem(s) and/or electrical system with associated components, asdescribed herein, capable of managing the power generation unit 504 toreceive power, routing the power to the power storage 208, and thenproviding the power from either the power generation unit 504 and/or thepower storage 208 to the loads 508. Thus, the power managementcontroller 224 may execute programming that controls switches, devices,components, etc. involved in the reception, storage, and provision ofthe power in the electrical system 500.

An embodiment of the power generation unit 504 may be as shown in FIG.6. Generally, the power generation unit 504 may be electrically coupledto one or more power sources 208. The power sources 208 can includepower sources internal and/or associated with the vehicle 100 and/orpower sources external to the vehicle 100 to which the vehicle 100electrically connects. One of the internal power sources can include anon board generator 604. The generator 604 may be an alternating current(AC) generator, a direct current (DC) generator or a self-excitedgenerator. The AC generators can include induction generators, linearelectric generators, and/or other types of generators. The DC generatorscan include homopolar generators and/or other types of generators. Thegenerator 604 can be brushless or include brush contacts and generatethe electric field with permanent magnets or through induction. Thegenerator 604 may be mechanically coupled to a source of kinetic energy,such as an axle or some other power take-off. The generator 604 may alsohave another mechanical coupling to an exterior source of kineticenergy, for example, a wind turbine.

Another power source 208 may include wired or wireless charging 608. Thewireless charging system 608 may include inductive and/or resonantfrequency inductive charging systems that can include coils, frequencygenerators, controllers, etc. Wired charging may be any kind ofgrid-connected charging that has a physical connection, although, thewireless charging may be grid connected through a wireless interface.The wired charging system can include connectors, wiredinterconnections, the controllers, etc. The wired and wireless chargingsystems 608 can provide power to the power generation unit 504 fromexternal power sources 208.

Internal sources for power may include a regenerative braking system612. The regenerative braking system 612 can convert the kinetic energyof the moving car into electrical energy through a generation systemmounted within the wheels, axle, and/or braking system of the vehicle100. The regenerative braking system 612 can include any coils, magnets,electrical interconnections, converters, controllers, etc. required toconvert the kinetic energy into electrical energy.

Another source of power 208, internal to or associated with the vehicle100, may be a solar array 616. The solar array 616 may include anysystem or device of one or more solar cells mounted on the exterior ofthe vehicle 100 or integrated within the body panels of the vehicle 100that provides or converts solar energy into electrical energy to provideto the power generation unit 504.

The power sources 208 may be connected to the power generation unit 504through an electrical interconnection 618. The electricalinterconnection 618 can include any wire, interface, bus, etc. betweenthe one or more power sources 208 and the power generation unit 504.

The power generation unit 504 can also include a power source interface620. The power source interface 620 can be any type of physical and/orelectrical interface used to receive the electrical energy from the oneor more power sources 208; thus, the power source interface 620 caninclude an electrical interface 624 that receives the electrical energyand a mechanical interface 628 which may include wires, connectors, orother types of devices or physical connections. The mechanical interface608 can also include a physical/electrical connection 634 to the powergeneration unit 504.

The electrical energy from the power source 208 can be processed throughthe power source interface 624 to an electric converter 632. Theelectric converter 632 may convert the characteristics of the power fromone of the power sources into a useable form that may be used either bythe power storage 208 or one or more loads 508 within the vehicle 100.The electrical converter 624 may include any electronics or electricaldevices and/or component that can change electrical characteristics,e.g., AC frequency, amplitude, phase, etc. associated with theelectrical energy provided by the power source 208. The convertedelectrical energy may then be provided to an optional conditioner 1638.The conditioner 1638 may include any electronics or electrical devicesand/or component that may further condition the converted electricalenergy by removing harmonics, noise, etc. from the electrical energy toprovide a more stable and effective form of power to the vehicle 100.

An embodiment of the power storage 208 may be as shown in FIG. 7. Thepower storage unit can include an electrical converter 632 b, one ormore batteries, one or more rechargeable batteries, one or morecapacitors, one or more accumulators, one or more supercapacitors, oneor more ultrabatteries, and/or superconducting magnetics 704, and/or acharge management unit 708. The converter 632 b may be the same orsimilar to the electrical converter 632 a shown in FIG. 6. The converter632 b may be a replacement for the electric converter 632 a shown inFIG. 6 and thus eliminate the need for the electrical converter 632 a asshown in FIG. 6. However, if the electrical converter 632 a is providedin the power generation unit 504, the converter 632 b, as shown in thepower storage unit 208, may be eliminated. The converter 632 b can alsobe redundant or different from the electrical converter 632 a shown inFIG. 6 and may provide a different form of energy to the battery and/orcapacitors 704. Thus, the converter 632 b can change the energycharacteristics specifically for the battery/capacitor 704.

The battery 704 can be any type of battery for storing electricalenergy, for example, a lithium ion battery, a lead acid battery, anickel cadmium battery, etc. Further, the battery 704 may includedifferent types of power storage systems, such as, ionic fluids or othertypes of fuel cell systems. The energy storage 704 may also include oneor more high-capacity capacitors 704. The capacitors 704 may be used forlong-term or short-term storage of electrical energy. The input into thebattery or capacitor 704 may be different from the output, and thus, thecapacitor 704 may be charged quickly but drain slowly. The functioningof the converter 632 and battery capacitor 704 may be monitored ormanaged by a charge management unit 708.

The charge management unit 708 can include any hardware (e.g., anyelectronics or electrical devices and/or components), software, orfirmware operable to adjust the operations of the converter 632 orbatteries/capacitors 704. The charge management unit 708 can receiveinputs or periodically monitor the converter 632 and/orbattery/capacitor 704 from this information; the charge management unit708 may then adjust settings or inputs into the converter 632 orbattery/capacitor 704 to control the operation of the power storagesystem 208.

An embodiment of one or more loads 508 associated with the vehicle 100may be as shown in FIG. 8. The loads 508 may include a bus or electricalinterconnection system 802, which provides electrical energy to one ormore different loads within the vehicle 100. The bus 802 can be anynumber of wires or interfaces used to connect the power generation unit504 and/or power storage 208 to the one or more loads 508. The converter632 c may be an interface from the power generation unit 504 or thepower storage 208 into the loads 508. The converter 632 c may be thesame or similar to electric converter 632 a as shown in FIG. 6. Similarto the discussion of the converter 632 b in FIG. 7, the converter 632 cmay be eliminated, if the electric converter 632 a, shown in FIG. 6, ispresent. However, the converter 632 c may further condition or changethe energy characteristics for the bus 802 for use by the loads 508. Theconverter 632 c may also provide electrical energy to electric motor804, which may power the vehicle 100.

The electric motor 804 can be any type of DC or AC electric motor. Theelectric motor may be a direct drive or induction motor using permanentmagnets and/or winding either on the stator or rotor. The electric motor804 may also be wireless or include brush contacts. The electric motor804 may be capable of providing a torque and enough kinetic energy tomove the vehicle 100 in traffic. In some embodiments, the electric motor804 may be similar, if not identical, to the electric motor 212described in conjunction with FIG. 2.

The different loads 508 may also include environmental loads 812, sensorloads 816, safety loads 820, user interaction loads 808, etc. Userinteraction loads 808 can be any energy used by user interfaces orsystems that interact with the driver and/or passenger(s) of the vehicle100. These loads 808 may include, for example, the heads up display 434,the dash display 420, 424, 428, the radio, user interfaces on the headunit, lights, radio, and/or other types of loads that provide or receiveinformation from the occupants of the vehicle 100. The environmentalloads 812 can be any loads used to control the environment within thevehicle 100. For example, the air conditioning or heating unit of thevehicle 100 can be environmental loads 812. Other environmental loadscan include lights, fans, and/or defrosting units, etc. that may controlthe environment within, and/or outside of, the vehicle 100. The sensorloads 816 can be any loads used by sensors, for example, air bagsensors, GPS, and other such sensors used to either manage or controlthe vehicle 100 and/or provide information or feedback to the vehicleoccupants. The safety loads 820 can include any safety equipment, forexample, seat belt alarms, airbags, headlights, blinkers, etc. that maybe used to manage the safety of the occupants of the vehicle 100. Theremay be more or fewer loads than those described herein, although theymay not be shown in FIG. 8.

FIG. 9 illustrates a hardware diagram of communications componentry thatcan be optionally associated with the vehicle 100 in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure.

The communications componentry can include one or more wired or wirelessdevices such as a transceiver(s) and/or modem that allows communicationsnot only between the various systems disclosed herein but also withother devices, such as devices on a network, and/or on a distributednetwork such as the Internet and/or in the cloud and/or with othervehicle(s).

The communications subsystem can also include inter- and intra-vehiclecommunications capabilities such as hotspot and/or access pointconnectivity for any one or more of the vehicle occupants and/orvehicle-to-vehicle communications.

Additionally, and while not specifically illustrated, the communicationssubsystem can include one or more communications links (that can bewired or wireless) and/or communications busses (managed by the busmanager 974), including one or more of CANbus, OBD-II, ARCINC 429,Byteflight, CAN (Controller Area Network), D2B (Domestic Digital Bus),FlexRay, DC-BUS, IDB-1394, IEBus, I2C, ISO 9141-1/-2, J1708, J1587,J1850, J1939, ISO 11783, Keyword Protocol 2000, LIN (Local InterconnectNetwork), MOST (Media Oriented Systems Transport), Multifunction VehicleBus, SMARTwireX, SPI, VAN (Vehicle Area Network), and the like or ingeneral any communications protocol and/or standard(s).

The various protocols and communications can be communicated one or moreof wirelessly and/or over transmission media such as single wire,twisted pair, fiber optic, IEEE 1394, MIL-STD-1553, MIL-STD-1773,power-line communication, or the like. (All of the above standards andprotocols are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety).

As discussed, the communications subsystem enables communicationsbetween any if the inter-vehicle systems and subsystems as well ascommunications with non-collocated resources, such as those reachableover a network such as the Internet.

The communications subsystem 900, in addition to well-known componentry(which has been omitted for clarity), includes interconnected elementsincluding one or more of: one or more antennas 904, aninterleaver/deinterleaver 908, an analog front end (AFE) 912,memory/storage/cache 916, controller/microprocessor 920, MAC circuitry922, modulator/demodulator 924, encoder/decoder 928, a plurality ofconnectivity managers 934-966, GPU 940, accelerator 944, amultiplexer/demultiplexer 952, transmitter 970, receiver 972 andwireless radio 978 components such as a Wi-Fi PHY/Bluetooth® module 980,a Wi-Fi/BT MAC module 984, transmitter 988 and receiver 992. The variouselements in the device 900 are connected by one or more links/busses 5(not shown, again for sake of clarity).

The device 400 can have one more antennas 904, for use in wirelesscommunications such as multi-input multi-output (MIMO) communications,multi-user multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) communications Bluetooth®,LTE, 4G, 5G, Near-Field Communication (NFC), etc., and in general forany type of wireless communications. The antenna(s) 904 can include, butare not limited to one or more of directional antennas, omnidirectionalantennas, monopoles, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas,dipoles, and any other antenna(s) suitable for communicationtransmission/reception. In an exemplary embodiment,transmission/reception using MIMO may require particular antennaspacing. In another exemplary embodiment, MIMO transmission/receptioncan enable spatial diversity allowing for different channelcharacteristics at each of the antennas. In yet another embodiment, MIMOtransmission/reception can be used to distribute resources to multipleusers for example within the vehicle 100 and/or in another vehicle.

Antenna(s) 904 generally interact with the Analog Front End (AFE) 912,which is needed to enable the correct processing of the receivedmodulated signal and signal conditioning for a transmitted signal. TheAFE 912 can be functionally located between the antenna and a digitalbaseband system in order to convert the analog signal into a digitalsignal for processing and vice-versa.

The subsystem 900 can also include a controller/microprocessor 920 and amemory/storage/cache 916. The subsystem 900 can interact with thememory/storage/cache 916 which may store information and operationsnecessary for configuring and transmitting or receiving the informationdescribed herein. The memory/storage/cache 916 may also be used inconnection with the execution of application programming or instructionsby the controller/microprocessor 920, and for temporary or long termstorage of program instructions and/or data. As examples, thememory/storage/cache 920 may comprise a computer-readable device, RAM,ROM, DRAM, SDRAM, and/or other storage device(s) and media.

The controller/microprocessor 920 may comprise a general purposeprogrammable processor or controller for executing applicationprogramming or instructions related to the subsystem 900. Furthermore,the controller/microprocessor 920 can perform operations for configuringand transmitting/receiving information as described herein. Thecontroller/microprocessor 920 may include multiple processor cores,and/or implement multiple virtual processors. Optionally, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 may include multiple physical processors.By way of example, the controller/microprocessor 920 may comprise aspecially configured Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) orother integrated circuit, a digital signal processor(s), a controller, ahardwired electronic or logic circuit, a programmable logic device orgate array, a special purpose computer, or the like.

The subsystem 900 can further include a transmitter 970 and receiver 972which can transmit and receive signals, respectively, to and from otherdevices, subsystems and/or other destinations using the one or moreantennas 904 and/or links/busses. Included in the subsystem 900circuitry is the medium access control or MAC Circuitry 922. MACcircuitry 922 provides for controlling access to the wireless medium. Inan exemplary embodiment, the MAC circuitry 922 may be arranged tocontend for the wireless medium and configure frames or packets forcommunicating over the wired/wireless medium.

The subsystem 900 can also optionally contain a security module (notshown). This security module can contain information regarding but notlimited to, security parameters required to connect the device to one ormore other devices or other available network(s), and can include WEP orWPA/WPA-2 (optionally+AES and/or TKIP) security access keys, networkkeys, etc. The WEP security access key is a security password used byWi-Fi networks. Knowledge of this code can enable a wireless device toexchange information with an access point and/or another device. Theinformation exchange can occur through encoded messages with the WEPaccess code often being chosen by the network administrator. WPA is anadded security standard that is also used in conjunction with networkconnectivity with stronger encryption than WEP.

In some embodiments, the communications subsystem 900 also includes aGPU 940, an accelerator 944, a Wi-Fi/BT/BLE PHY module 980 and aWi-Fi/BT/BLE MAC module 984 and wireless transmitter 988 and receiver992. In some embodiments, the GPU 940 may be a graphics processing unit,or visual processing unit, comprising at least one circuit and/or chipthat manipulates and changes memory to accelerate the creation of imagesin a frame buffer for output to at least one display device. The GPU 940may include one or more of a display device connection port, printedcircuit board (PCB), a GPU chip, a metal-oxide-semiconductorfield-effect transistor (MOSFET), memory (e.g., single data raterandom-access memory (SDRAM), double data rate random-access memory(DDR) RAM, etc., and/or combinations thereof), a secondary processingchip (e.g., handling video out capabilities, processing, and/or otherfunctions in addition to the GPU chip, etc.), a capacitor, heatsink,temperature control or cooling fan, motherboard connection, shielding,and the like.

The various connectivity managers 934-966 (even) manage and/orcoordinate communications between the subsystem 900 and one or more ofthe systems disclosed herein and one or more other devices/systems. Theconnectivity managers include an emergency charging connectivity manager934, an aerial charging connectivity manager 938, a roadway chargingconnectivity manager 942, an overhead charging connectivity manager 946,a robotic charging connectivity manager 950, a static chargingconnectivity manager 954, a vehicle database connectivity manager 958, aremote operating system connectivity manager 962 and a sensorconnectivity manager 966.

The emergency charging connectivity manager 934 can coordinate not onlythe physical connectivity between the vehicle 100 and the emergencycharging device/vehicle, but can also communicate with one or more ofthe power management controller, one or more third parties andoptionally a billing system(s). As an example, the vehicle 100 canestablish communications with the emergency charging device/vehicle toone or more of coordinate interconnectivity between the two (e.g., byspatially aligning the charging receptacle on the vehicle with thecharger on the emergency charging vehicle) and optionally sharenavigation information. Once charging is complete, the amount of chargeprovided can be tracked and optionally forwarded to, for example, athird party for billing. In addition to being able to manageconnectivity for the exchange of power, the emergency chargingconnectivity manager 934 can also communicate information, such asbilling information to the emergency charging vehicle and/or a thirdparty. This billing information could be, for example, the owner of thevehicle, the driver/occupant(s) of the vehicle, company information, orin general any information usable to charge the appropriate entity forthe power received.

The aerial charging connectivity manager 938 can coordinate not only thephysical connectivity between the vehicle 100 and the aerial chargingdevice/vehicle, but can also communicate with one or more of the powermanagement controller, one or more third parties and optionally abilling system(s). As an example, the vehicle 100 can establishcommunications with the aerial charging device/vehicle to one or more ofcoordinate interconnectivity between the two (e.g., by spatiallyaligning the charging receptacle on the vehicle with the charger on theemergency charging vehicle) and optionally share navigation information.Once charging is complete, the amount of charge provided can be trackedand optionally forwarded to, for example, a third party for billing. Inaddition to being able to manage connectivity for the exchange of power,the aerial charging connectivity manager 938 can similarly communicateinformation, such as billing information to the aerial charging vehicleand/or a third party. This billing information could be, for example,the owner of the vehicle 100, the driver/occupant(s) of the vehicle 100,company information, or in general any information usable to charge theappropriate entity for the power received etc., as discussed.

The roadway charging connectivity manager 942 and overhead chargingconnectivity manager 946 can coordinate not only the physicalconnectivity between the vehicle 100 and the charging device/system, butcan also communicate with one or more of the power managementcontroller, one or more third parties and optionally a billingsystem(s). As one example, the vehicle 100 can request a charge from thecharging system when, for example, the vehicle 100 needs or is predictedto need power. As an example, the vehicle 100 can establishcommunications with the charging device/vehicle to one or more ofcoordinate interconnectivity between the two for charging and shareinformation for billing. Once charging is complete, the amount of chargeprovided can be tracked and optionally forwarded to, for example, athird party for billing. This billing information could be, for example,the owner of the vehicle 100, the driver/occupant(s) of the vehicle 100,company information, or in general any information usable to charge theappropriate entity for the power received etc., as discussed. The personresponsible for paying for the charge could also receive a copy of thebilling information as is customary. The robotic charging connectivitymanager 950 and static charging connectivity manager 954 can operate ina similar manner to that described herein.

The vehicle database connectivity manager 958 allows the subsystem toreceive and/or share information stored in the vehicle database. Thisinformation can be shared with other vehicle components/subsystemsand/or other entities, such as third parties and/or charging systems.The information can also be shared with one or more vehicle occupantdevices, such as an app (application) on a mobile device the driver usesto track information about the vehicle 100 and/or a dealer orservice/maintenance provider. In general any information stored in thevehicle database can optionally be shared with any one or more otherdevices optionally subject to any privacy or confidentiallyrestrictions.

The remote operating system connectivity manager 962 facilitatescommunications between the vehicle 100 and any one or more autonomousvehicle systems. These communications can include one or more ofnavigation information, vehicle information, other vehicle information,weather information, occupant information, or in general any informationrelated to the remote operation of the vehicle 100.

The sensor connectivity manager 966 facilitates communications betweenany one or more of the vehicle sensors and any one or more of the othervehicle systems. The sensor connectivity manager 966 can also facilitatecommunications between any one or more of the sensors and/or vehiclesystems and any other destination, such as a service company, app, or ingeneral to any destination where sensor data is needed.

In accordance with one exemplary embodiment, any of the communicationsdiscussed herein can be communicated via the conductor(s) used forcharging. One exemplary protocol usable for these communications isPower-line communication (PLC). PLC is a communication protocol thatuses electrical wiring to simultaneously carry both data, andAlternating Current (AC) electric power transmission or electric powerdistribution. It is also known as power-line carrier, power-line digitalsubscriber line (PDSL), mains communication, power-linetelecommunications, or power-line networking (PLN). For DC environmentsin vehicles PLC can be used in conjunction with CAN-bus, LIN-bus overpower line (DC-LIN) and DC-BUS.

The communications subsystem can also optionally manage one or moreidentifiers, such as an IP (internet protocol) address(es), associatedwith the vehicle and one or other system or subsystems or componentstherein. These identifiers can be used in conjunction with any one ormore of the connectivity managers as discussed herein.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of a computing environment 1000 thatmay function as the servers, user computers, or other systems providedand described herein. The environment 1000 includes one or more usercomputers, or computing devices, such as a vehicle computing device1004, a communication device 1008, and/or more 1012. The computingdevices 1004, 1008, 1012 may include general purpose personal computers(including, merely by way of example, personal computers, and/or laptopcomputers running various versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows® and/orApple Corp.'s Macintosh® operating systems) and/or workstation computersrunning any of a variety of commercially-available UNIX® or UNIX-likeoperating systems. These computing devices 1004, 1008, 1012 may alsohave any of a variety of applications, including for example, databaseclient and/or server applications, and web browser applications.Alternatively, the computing devices 1004, 1008, 1012 may be any otherelectronic device, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabledmobile telephone, and/or personal digital assistant, capable ofcommunicating via a network 1010 and/or displaying and navigating webpages or other types of electronic documents. Although the exemplarycomputer environment 1000 is shown with two computing devices, anynumber of user computers or computing devices may be supported.

Environment 1000 further includes a network 1010. The network 1010 maycan be any type of network familiar to those skilled in the art that cansupport data communications using any of a variety ofcommercially-available protocols, including without limitation SIP,TCP/IP, SNA, IPX, AppleTalk, and the like. Merely by way of example, thenetwork 1010 may be a local area network (“LAN”), such as an Ethernetnetwork, a Token-Ring network and/or the like; a wide-area network; avirtual network, including without limitation a virtual private network(“VPN”); the Internet; an intranet; an extranet; a public switchedtelephone network (“PSTN”); an infra-red network; a wireless network(e.g., a network operating under any of the IEEE 802.9 suite ofprotocols, the Bluetooth® protocol known in the art, and/or any otherwireless protocol); and/or any combination of these and/or othernetworks.

The system may also include one or more servers 1014, 1016. In thisexample, server 1014 is shown as a web server and server 1016 is shownas an application server. The web server 1014, which may be used toprocess requests for web pages or other electronic documents fromcomputing devices 1004, 1008, 1012. The web server 1014 can be runningan operating system including any of those discussed above, as well asany commercially-available server operating systems. The web server 1014can also run a variety of server applications, including SIP (SessionInitiation Protocol) servers, HTTP(s) servers, FTP servers, CGI servers,database servers, Java servers, and the like. In some instances, the webserver 1014 may publish operations available operations as one or moreweb services.

The environment 1000 may also include one or more file andor/application servers 1016, which can, in addition to an operatingsystem, include one or more applications accessible by a client runningon one or more of the computing devices 1004, 1008, 1012. The server(s)1016 and/or 1014 may be one or more general purpose computers capable ofexecuting programs or scripts in response to the computing devices 1004,1008, 1012. As one example, the server 1016, 1014 may execute one ormore web applications. The web application may be implemented as one ormore scripts or programs written in any programming language, such asJava™, C, C#®, or C++, and/or any scripting language, such as Perl,Python, or TCL, as well as combinations of any programming/scriptinglanguages. The application server(s) 1016 may also include databaseservers, including without limitation those commercially available fromOracle®, Microsoft®, Sybase®, IBM® and the like, which can processrequests from database clients running on a computing device 1004, 1008,1012.

The web pages created by the server 1014 and/or 1016 may be forwarded toa computing device 1004, 1008, 1012 via a web (file) server 1014, 1016.Similarly, the web server 1014 may be able to receive web page requests,web services invocations, and/or input data from a computing device1004, 1008, 1012 (e.g., a user computer, etc.) and can forward the webpage requests and/or input data to the web (application) server 1016. Infurther embodiments, the server 1016 may function as a file server.Although for ease of description, FIG. 10 illustrates a separate webserver 1014 and file/application server 1016, those skilled in the artwill recognize that the functions described with respect to servers1014, 1016 may be performed by a single server and/or a plurality ofspecialized servers, depending on implementation-specific needs andparameters. The computer systems 1004, 1008, 1012, web (file) server1014 and/or web (application) server 1016 may function as the system,devices, or components described in FIGS. 1-10.

The environment 1000 may also include a database 1018. The database 1018may reside in a variety of locations. By way of example, database 1018may reside on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) one or moreof the computers 1004, 1008, 1012, 1014, 1016. Alternatively, it may beremote from any or all of the computers 1004, 1008, 1012, 1014, 1016,and in communication (e.g., via the network 1010) with one or more ofthese. The database 1018 may reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”)familiar to those skilled in the art. Similarly, any necessary files forperforming the functions attributed to the computers 1004, 1008, 1012,1014, 1016 may be stored locally on the respective computer and/orremotely, as appropriate. The database 1018 may be a relationaldatabase, such as Oracle 20i®, that is adapted to store, update, andretrieve data in response to SQL-formatted commands.

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a computer system 1100 upon whichthe servers, user computers, computing devices, or other systems orcomponents described above may be deployed or executed. The computersystem 1100 is shown comprising hardware elements that may beelectrically coupled via a bus 1104. The hardware elements may includeone or more central processing units (CPUs) 1108; one or more inputdevices 1112 (e.g., a mouse, a keyboard, etc.); and one or more outputdevices 1116 (e.g., a display device, a printer, etc.). The computersystem 1100 may also include one or more storage devices 1120. By way ofexample, storage device(s) 1120 may be disk drives, optical storagedevices, solid-state storage devices such as a random access memory(“RAM”) and/or a read-only memory (“ROM”), which can be programmable,flash-updateable and/or the like.

The computer system 1100 may additionally include a computer-readablestorage media reader 1124; a communications system 1128 (e.g., a modem,a network card (wireless or wired), an infra-red communication device,etc.); and working memory 1136, which may include RAM and ROM devices asdescribed above. The computer system 1100 may also include a processingacceleration unit 1132, which can include a DSP, a special-purposeprocessor, and/or the like.

The computer-readable storage media reader 1124 can further be connectedto a computer-readable storage medium, together (and, optionally, incombination with storage device(s) 1120) comprehensively representingremote, local, fixed, and/or removable storage devices plus storagemedia for temporarily and/or more permanently containingcomputer-readable information. The communications system 1128 may permitdata to be exchanged with a network and/or any other computer describedabove with respect to the computer environments described herein.Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” may representone or more devices for storing data, including read only memory (ROM),random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic diskstorage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/orother machine readable mediums for storing information.

The computer system 1100 may also comprise software elements, shown asbeing currently located within a working memory 1136, including anoperating system 1140 and/or other code 1144. It should be appreciatedthat alternate embodiments of a computer system 1100 may have numerousvariations from that described above. For example, customized hardwaremight also be used and/or particular elements might be implemented inhardware, software (including portable software, such as applets), orboth. Further, connection to other computing devices such as networkinput/output devices may be employed.

Examples of the processors 1108 as described herein may include, but arenot limited to, at least one of Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 800 and 801,Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 620 and 615 with 4G LTE Integration and 64-bitcomputing, Apple® A7 processor with 64-bit architecture, Apple® M7motion coprocessors, Samsung® Exynos® series, the Intel® Core™ family ofprocessors, the Intel® Xeon® family of processors, the Intel® Atom™family of processors, the Intel Itanium® family of processors, Intel®Core® i5-4670K and i7-4770K 22 nm Haswell, Intel® Core® i5-3570K 22 nmIvy Bridge, the AMD® FX™ family of processors, AMD® FX-4300, FX-6300,and FX-8350 32 nm Vishera, AMD® Kaveri processors, Texas Instruments®Jacinto C6000™ automotive infotainment processors, Texas Instruments®OMAP™ automotive-grade mobile processors, ARM® Cortex™-M processors,ARM® Cortex-A and ARM926EJ-S™ processors, other industry-equivalentprocessors, and may perform computational functions using any known orfuture-developed standard, instruction set, libraries, and/orarchitecture.

Referring to FIG. 12, the vehicle 100 is shown in a plurality ofoperational and/or charging environments. The vehicle 100 may operate inany one or more of the depicted environments in any combination. Otherembodiments are possible but may not be depicted in FIG. 12. Generally,the vehicle 100 may operate in environments which enable charging of thevehicle 100 and/or operation of the vehicle 100. More specifically, thevehicle 100 may receive a charge via one or more means comprisingemergency charging vehicle system 1270, aerial vehicle charging system1280, roadway system 1250, robotic charging system 1254, and/or overheadcharging system 1258. The vehicle 100 may interact and/or operate in anenvironment comprising one or more other roadway vehicles 1260. Thevehicle 100 may engage with elements within the vehicle 100 comprisingvehicle driver 1220, vehicle passengers 1230, and/or a vehicle database1210. In one embodiment, vehicle database 1210 may not physically residein the vehicle 100 and may instead be accessed remotely (e.g., bywireless communication, etc.), and as such, may reside in anotherlocation such as a residence or business location. The vehicle 100 mayoperate autonomously and/or semi-autonomously in an autonomousenvironment 1290 (here, depicted as a roadway environment presenting aroadway obstacle 1294 of which the vehicle 100 autonomously identifiesand steers the vehicle 100 clear of the obstacle 1294). Furthermore, thevehicle 100 may engage with a remote operator system 1240, which mayprovide fleet management instructions or control.

In some embodiments, the vehicle 100 may be configured to receive chargevia one or more compatible vehicle charging interfaces, such as one ormore charging panels and/or interconnections. These compatible vehiclecharging interfaces may be configured at one or more locations on, in,or about a vehicle 100. For instance, the locations may includelocations on the vehicle 100 wherein charging may be received, via avehicle roof 130, vehicle side 160 and vehicle lower or undercarriage140.

FIG. 13 illustrates one or more sensors of a vehicle in accordance withembodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 13 is the same as FIG. 1except for FIG. 13 includes one or more sensors 1300 (also referred toas sensor(s) 1300).

The sensors 1300 are part of the sensor loads 816 discussed with respectto FIG. 8 and are managed by the sensor connectivity manager 966discussed with reference to FIG. 9. According to one embodiment, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 automatically adjusts the display deviceof the vehicle 100 based on output received from the sensors 1300.Example operations of the controller/microprocessor 920 are discussed inmore detail below with reference to FIGS. 14A-17.

In one embodiment, the sensors 1300 monitor a travel context (or state)of the vehicle 100. Examples of travel context include surroundings ofthe vehicle 100 (such as road conditions, traffic conditions, nearbyvehicles, etc.), a route of the vehicle 100, vehicle altitude, enginetemperature, etc., and/or combinations thereof. In some embodiments, oneor more sensors 1300 can observe or monitor the environment, drivingconditions, or context of the travel. From these observations and/orother (e.g., additional, etc.) information, the dash, head unit, HUD orother displays may be adjusted automatically to assist thedriver/passenger. By way of example, frequent starts and stops intraffic may cause a temperature gauge to be introduced to the displayto, among other things, alert an occupant of potential overheatingissues before damage occurs. New widgets, icons, and/or display elementsmay be added when needed, such as, a temperature gauge when towing, analtimeter when climbing mountains, a temperature control when theoutside temperature is over or under predetermined benchmarks, etc., asdescribed herein. Thus, each sensor 1300 may include one or more typesof devices to assist with monitoring the travel context. For example,the sensors 1300 may include one or more cameras, such asinfrared/near-infrared cameras (or depth cameras) used for mapping thesurroundings of the vehicle 100. Such cameras may operate according totime-of-flight principles to achieve obstacle detection, lane detection,etc. For example, a light source of the sensor 1300 (or associated withthe sensor 1300) emits light (e.g., infrared light) toward surroundingsof the vehicle 100. Light emitted from the light source is thenreflected by objects external to the vehicle and the reflected light issensed by individual pixels of a camera of the sensor 1300. Based ontime-of-flight principles (i.e., a time taken for the light emitted fromthe light source to reflect off on an object and then be sensed by thepixels of the camera), the controller/microprocessor 920 generates adepth map (where each pixel is assigned a depth value based on theelapsed time between the light source emitting light and the camerareceiving the reflected light), which is a three-dimensionalrepresentation of the surroundings of the vehicle 100 that is within thecamera's range. For obstacle/lane detection, the ongoing generation ofthe depth map is analyzed by the controller/microprocessor 920 to detectthe obstacles/lanes in the roadway. It should be understood that exampleembodiments are not limited to the above described method for mappingsurroundings of the vehicle 100, and that other known methods may beused.

Other types and locations of sensors 1300 for monitoring a travelcontext of the vehicle 100 include vibration sensors (e.g.,accelerometers) for monitoring vehicle vibration, altitude sensors formonitoring an altitude of the vehicle, temperature sensors for ambientand/or engine temperature, ultrasonic sensors configured to detectmovement on the exterior of the vehicle 100, pressure sensors configuredto detect ambient pressure conditions at the exterior of the vehicle100, etc., and/or combinations thereof. It should be understood that anumber, type, and location of the sensors 1300 are not limited to theoptions shown in FIG. 13 and may vary according to design parameters,such as a condition to be monitored. Thus, additional sensors 1300 maybe located in and/or on parts of the vehicle 100 not specificallyillustrated in FIG. 13.

FIG. 14A illustrates one embodiment of a first presentation ofinformation on a travel context-adjusted display device of a vehicle100. FIG. 14A is the same as FIG. 4 except that FIG. 14A illustrates afirst presentation of information as items I1 to I6 on a display deviceof the vehicle 100, where the display device refers to the collection ofthe vehicle operational display 420, the one or more auxiliary displays424, the heads-up display 434, the power management display 428, theinput device 432, and/or other displays (mobile device displays) relatedto the vehicle 100. The information includes at least one of vehicleinformation about the vehicle and environment information about anenvironment surrounding of the vehicle 100. Examples of vehicleinformation include any information about the status or condition of thevehicle 100, such as vehicle speed, engine temperature, battery level,trip and/or overall mileage, car stereo settings, and the like. Examplesof environment information include any information about the status orcondition of the environment of the vehicle, such as external ambientwhether conditions, altitude, positional information (e.g., GPSinterface), and the like. For example, the vehicle 100 may consider achange in the temperate zone (e.g., temperature, pressure, and/orenvironment about a vehicle 100, etc.) as the vehicle 100 travels indetermining to adjust the presentation. In one embodiment, temperaturegauges may be added in high-heat temperate zones (e.g., based on ameasured temperature exterior to the vehicle 100). In some embodiments,a vehicle mode may be engaged, such as four-wheel drive, etc. whenconditions are detected (e.g., low-temperature, icy, or snowyconditions—when drive slip is detected and/or when temperatures fallbelow a threshold value, etc.). In this case, an indication offour-wheel drive information may be rendered as part of the modifiedpresentation. In any event, the first presentation of the information asitems I1-I6 may be a default presentation of the information that isdisplayed each time the vehicle 100 is restarted. Items I1-I6 may bepresented in the form of one or more widgets, one or more icons, one ormore menus, one or more windows, one or more tabs, and the like.

FIG. 14B illustrates one embodiment of a second presentation ofinformation on a travel context-adjusted display device of a vehicle100. Elements in FIG. 14B are the same as FIG. 14A except that FIG. 14Billustrates a second presentation of information as items I1 to I7 on adisplay device on the vehicle 100. Comparing the first presentation ofthe information in FIG. 14A and the second presentation of theinformation in FIG. 14B reveals that the second presentation ofinformation includes additional information as item I7 as well as are-rendering items I1 and I4, where locations of items I1 and I4 haveswapped and item I4 has been resized (e.g., increased in size). Inaddition to changing sizes, locations, and content of the information(e.g., by adding and/or subtracting information items from the displaydevice), it should be understood that the controller/microprocessor 920may also change other properties of the information, such as abrightness of the items, a color of the items, and/or other visualsettings associated with displaying information when rendering thesecond presentation.

Further, the controller/microprocessor 920 may associate a presentationof the information with a particular occupant, such as the driver, andstore the association as a user profile in the memory/storage/cache 916.Upon determining that an occupant has an associated user profileindicating a preferred presentation of the information (e.g., based onoutput from at least one sensor 1300), the controller/microprocessor 920may automatically switch to the presentation of the informationindicated by the user profile. The vehicle 100 may include one or morebiometric sensors (e.g., retina scanner, fingerprint scanner, etc.) toassist with identifying the occupant to select an associated userprofile.

The controller/microprocessor 920 may render the second presentation ofthe information shown in FIG. 14B to replace the first presentation ofinformation shown in FIG. 14A for reasons discussed in more detail belowwith reference to FIGS. 15-17.

FIG. 15 illustrates example operations of the controller/microprocessor920 according to at least one embodiment. FIG. 15 is a flow diagram of afirst method for rendering a second presentation of information to adisplay device to replace a first presentation of the information on thedisplay device accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure.While a general order for the steps of the method is shown in FIG. 15,the method can include more or fewer steps or can arrange the order ofthe steps differently than those shown in FIG. 15. Generally, the methodstarts at operation 1400 and ends at operation 1430. The method can beexecuted as a set of computer-executable instructions executed by acomputer system and encoded or stored on a computer readable medium. Forexample, the operations discussed with respect to FIG. 15 may beimplemented by the controller/microprocessor 920 carrying instructionsstored on a computer readable medium, such as the memory/storage/cache916. Hereinafter, the FIG. 15 shall be explained with reference to thesystems, components, assemblies, devices, user interfaces, environments,software, etc. described in conjunction with FIGS. 1-14B.

In operation 1400, the controller/microprocessor 920 receives outputfrom at least one sensor 1300 monitoring a travel context of a vehicle100.

In operation 1405, the controller/microprocessor 920 determines, basedon the received output, a condition (or state) of the vehicle 100. Forexample, the controller/microprocessor 920 may use the output from thesensor 1300 as well as information from other vehicle sensors in sensorloads 816 to determine the condition of the vehicle 100. FIG. 16illustrates specific examples of conditions (or states) determined bythe controller/microprocessor 920 based on output of the sensor 1300,and is discussed in more detail below.

In operation 1410, the controller/microprocessor 920 determines, basedon the determined condition of the vehicle, to alter a firstpresentation of information displayed to a display device (i.e., one ormore of displays 420, 424, 434, 428, 432) of the vehicle 100 to a secondpresentation of the information displayed to the display device. Asdiscussed with reference to FIGS. 14A and 14B, the information includesat least one of vehicle information about the vehicle and environmentinformation about the surroundings of the vehicle.

In operation 1415, the controller/microprocessor 920 renders the secondpresentation of the information to the display device of the vehicle 100to replace the first presentation of the information displayed to thedisplay device of the vehicle 100. The controller/microprocessor 920 mayrender the second presentation based on at least one of one or morepreferences of the occupant, a recurrence frequency of the condition(e.g., a number of times the condition occurs over a desired timeinterval, for example, 5 minutes), and a priority level associated withthe condition determined in operation 1405. The one or more preferencesmay include a size, a color, a brightness, a location, and/or otheroccupant defined visual settings for the information to be displayed.The condition may have an associated recurrence frequency threshold thatshould be met within a threshold amount of time before thecontroller/microprocessor 920 renders the second presentation to includeinformation about the condition. Specific examples of operations1405-1415 are described in more detail below with reference to FIGS. 16and 17.

The priority level is based on at least a safety score associated withthe condition. Thus, the priority level may be representative of howrelevant the information to be displayed is to passenger safety (e.g.,icy road). The safety score may be represented as a number that has anassociated weight that assists with determining the priority level. Forexample, each condition detectable by the controller/microprocessor 920may have an initial (or default) priority level that is assigned inadvance or determined with the assistance of a raw priority score (RPS)in Equation 1. Additionally or alternatively, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 may continuously update the raw priorityscore for each condition using Equation 1.

RPS=βS  Equation 1

In Equation 1, S is a value that represents the safety score associatedwith the condition and β is the weight associated with the safety score.Value S and weight β may be fixed and/or changeable design parametersbased on user input and/or empirical evidence. Thecontroller/microprocessor 920 may assign a priority level to a conditionbased on the raw priority score by evaluating the raw priority scoreagainst one or more thresholds associated with each priority level. Thecontroller/microprocessor 920 may store the priority level in thememory/storage/cache 916. According to one embodiment, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 may store the priority level as part of alook-up-table (LUT) to assist with determining effects for rendering forthe second presentation based on the priority level, one or moreoccupant preferences, and/or a recurrence frequency of the condition.FIG. 16 illustrates an example LUT and is discussed below in moredetail.

Still referring to FIG. 15, the controller/microprocessor 920 mayre-render the first presentation to the display device to replace thesecond presentation in response to a trigger. For example, in operation1420, the controller/microprocessor 920 determines whether a trigger hasoccurred. If so, then the controller/microprocessor 920 performsoperation 1425 to re-renders the first presentation to replace thesecond presentation on the display device. If not, then thecontroller/microprocessor continues to render the second presentation tothe display device in operation 1430. The trigger may be a power resetevent in which the display device loses, then regains power, forexample, as a result of the vehicle 100 being shut-off and thenrestarted. In this case, the first presentation may be a defaultpresentation of the information to the display device set by, forexample, the manufacturer of the vehicle 100 and/or the user profilementioned above. According to one embodiment, the trigger is tied to anelapsed time from the performance of operation 1415. For example, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 may re-render the first presentation ifthe elapsed time is over a desired threshold time, such as 5 minutes.The threshold time may be a design parameter set based on user inputand/or empirical evidence. In another example, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 re-renders the first presentation afterceasing to detect the condition. In yet another example, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 re-renders the first presentation afterfailing to detect any changes in the condition within the thresholdtime. In some embodiments, the controller/microprocessor 920 mayre-render the first presentation upon detecting a change in the driving,operating, or controlling, occupant associated with the vehicle 100. Forinstance, control may be transferred from one occupant to another in thevehicle 100. In one control-transfer scenario, an occupant may switchpositions with another occupant in a controlling position (e.g., thedriver's seat, etc.). In another control-transfer scenario, an occupantmay transfer control of the vehicle 100 to another occupant in adifferent seat or area of the vehicle 100. In any event, a change in anoccupant associated with a control of one or more operations of thevehicle 100 may trigger the re-rendering of the first presentation.Although not specifically described herein, it should be understood thatadditional triggers are within the scope of example embodiments.

FIG. 16 illustrates example operations of the controller/microprocessor920 according to at least one embodiment. FIG. 16 is a flow diagram of amethod for rendering a second presentation of information to a displaydevice to replace a first presentation of the information on the displaydevice accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Forexample, FIG. 16 illustrates specific examples of conditions and secondpresentations mentioned in FIGS. 14A-15. While a general order for thesteps of the method is shown in FIG. 16, the method can include more orfewer steps or can arrange the order of the steps differently than thoseshown in FIG. 16. Generally, the method starts at operation 1500 andends at operation 1525. The method can be executed as a set ofcomputer-executable instructions executed by a computer system andencoded or stored on a computer readable medium. For example, theoperations discussed with respect to FIG. 16 may be implemented by thecontroller/microprocessor 920 carrying instructions stored on a computerreadable medium, such as the memory/storage/cache 916. Hereinafter, theFIG. 16 shall be explained with reference to the systems, components,assemblies, devices, user interfaces, environments, software, etc.described in conjunction with FIGS. 1-15.

In operation 1500, the controller/microprocessor 920 determines whetherthe condition is determined to include that the vehicle 100 is travelingin conditions that reduce display visibility for the display device 100.If so, the controller/microprocessor 920 performs operation 1505 torender the second presentation by at least one of i) increasing a sizeof the information on the display device, and ii) altering at least oneof a color and a brightness of the information on the display device.For example, in FIG. 14B, item I2 has been enlarged on HUD 434 comparedto item I2 in FIG. 14A. The low-vision condition may be determined forthe vehicle 100 traveling during peak day-light hours when the sun isparticularly bright and/or obscuring the driver's ability to see thedisplay device (e.g., if the sun is in the driver's field of vision). Inthis case, the reduced display visibility condition may be detectable bythe controller/microprocessor 920 by estimating a direction of the sun'sincident light rays based on ambient brightness levels sensed by thesensors 1300. In one embodiment, the controller/microprocessor 920 maydetermine the reduced display visibility condition by combining theestimated direction of the sun's rays with output from other sensors(e.g., a sensor in the interior of the vehicle 100 using pupil detectionto deduce that the occupant is squinting in the direction of the displaydevice).

If the controller/microprocessor 920 does not determine a reduceddisplay visibility condition in operation 1500, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 performs operation 1510 to determinewhether the condition includes that the vehicle 100 is repeatedlyperforming one or more operations within the travel context related to acertain item of the information in the first presentation. If so, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 performs operation 1515 to render thesecond presentation by moving the certain item closer to the occupant onthe display device. For example, if the travel context being monitoredis a start and stop (or speed up and slow down) frequency of the vehicle100 (e.g., because of heavy traffic) and/or that the vehicle 100 istowing something and the engine temperature represented by item I4, FIG.14B shows moving item I4 closer to the driver by swapping locations withitem I1, thereby allowing the driver to easily monitor enginetemperature. The controller/microprocessor 920 may that the vehicle isrepeatedly performing one or more operations by counting a number ofrepeated operations (i.e., a recurrence frequency of the condition)within a threshold amount of time, and comparing the number of repeatedoperations to a threshold number associated with that condition. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 17, the controller/microprocessor 920determines that a repeated start and stop condition occurs if outputfrom the sensor 1300 indicates that the vehicle has started and stopped3 times in 1 minutes. The threshold amount of time and threshold numbermay be design parameters set based on user input and/or empiricalevidence.

If the controller/microprocessor 920 does not that the conditionincludes that the vehicle 100 is repeatedly performing one or moreoperations within the travel context related to a certain item of theinformation in the first presentation in operation 1510, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 performs operation 1520 to determine ifthe condition includes the vehicle repeatedly performing one or moreoperations within the travel context related to a certain item not inthe information in the first presentation. If so, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 performs operation 1525 to render thesecond presentation by including the certain item in the information onthe display device. For example, if the vehicle 100 is determined to beascending or descending relatively rapidly, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 may include item I7 in FIG. 14B, whereitem I7 is an altimeter. To determine that the vehicle 100 is ascendingor descending rapidly, the controller/microprocessor 920 may processoutput of the sensor 1300 in addition to output from other vehiclesensors. For example, the controller/microprocessor 920 may use outputof the sensor 1300 (e.g., if the sensor 1300 includes a camera) todetermine that the surroundings of the vehicle include mountains,indicating a possibility of rapid altitude change. Thecontroller/microprocessor 920 may use this information in combinationwith information from other vehicle sensors such as speed sensors,tachometers, etc. to deduce that the vehicle 100 is ascending ordescending.

If the controller/microprocessor 920 does not determine that thecondition includes the vehicle repeatedly performing one or moreoperations within the travel context related to a certain item not inthe information in the first presentation in operation 1520, thecontroller/microprocessor 920 returns to operation 1500.

In FIG. 16, it should be understood that the controller/microprocessor920 may determine that multiple occupant conditions are occurringsimultaneously, in which case the controller/microprocessor 920 mayconsult the priority level of each condition to determine an arrangementof the information for rendering the second presentation (see discussionof FIG. 17 for more detail).

FIG. 17 illustrates an example LUT that assists with determining effectsfor rendering for the second presentation based on the priority level ofthe condition, one or more occupant preferences associated with thecondition, and/or a recurrence frequency of the condition.

FIG. 17 illustrates various conditions that may be determined by thecontroller/microprocessor 920 in accordance with the operationsdescribed in FIGS. 14A-16. The conditions include dangerous roadconditions, reduced display visibility, repeated start and stop of thevehicle, and rapid altitude change. As described with reference to FIG.15, each of these conditions may have one or more of an associatedsafety score, a weight associated with the safety score, a raw priorityscore, a priority level, a recurrence frequency threshold to exceedwithin a threshold time, a presentation effect, and occupantpreference(s). The safety score is representative of how relevant thecondition is to occupant safety. For example, the more likely acondition is to have a negative impact on occupant safety, the higherthe safety score. Thus, the condition of dangerous road conditions has ahighest safety score of 10 and weight of 1.0 in FIG. 17, while thecondition rapid altitude change receives a lower safety score of 5 andweight 0.2 because the altitude change is usually less likely tonegatively impact occupant safety.

The LUT includes a raw priority score (RPS) for each condition and anassociated priority level that is determined based on the RPS. In FIG.17, a higher RPS receives a higher priority level such that the impaireddriver condition receives a highest priority among the listedconditions. The LUT also includes presentation effects and occupantpreferences that guide how to display the presentation effects. When thecontroller/microprocessor 920 determines that multiple occupantconditions are occurring simultaneously, the controller/microprocessor920 may consult the priority level of each condition to determine anarrangement of the second presentation. In one embodiment, presentationeffects of conditions with higher priority levels may receive priorityover presentation effects of conditions with lower priority levels. Forexample, if the controller/microprocessor 920 determines that dangerousroad conditions occurs simultaneously with a repeated start and stop ofthe vehicle condition (both of which indicate that something should bedisplayed in a primary viewing location on the display device, which isa location on the display device that is within the driver's immediatefield of vision such as display 420A in FIG. 14A), thecontroller/microprocessor 920 will give preference to the higherpriority condition and render the second presentation to display thealert in the primary viewing location (e.g., to display 420A) whilemaintaining the location of the engine temperature or moving thelocation of the engine temperature to a secondary viewing location(e.g., to display 420B).

It should be understood that example embodiments contemplate thepossibility for updating safety scores, weights, and/or presentationeffects based on user input and/or empirical evidence. For example, ifthe controller/microprocessor 920 determines, based on output fromsensor 1300, that the rapid altitude change is particularly high or low(i.e., over or above a safety threshold) so as to indicate an increasedrisk of loss of steering control, then the controller/microprocessor 920may increase (e.g., temporarily increase) one of the safety score andthe weight for that condition so that a priority level of the conditionalso increases. The sudden increase in priority level may triggeradditional presentation effects such as a visual warning in a primaryviewing location to indicate that increased or decreased altitude hasbeen detected. This may be particularly useful for monitoring descentsof heavy duty vehicles, such as tractor trailer trucks.

It should be understood that every condition does not necessarily havean associated safety score, associated preferences, and/or an associatedrecurrence frequency, in which case the LUT may include only an initialor default values for those categories. It should be further understoodthat example embodiments are not limited to the conditions andpresentations described with respect to FIGS. 13-17, and that otherconditions and presentations are within the scope of exampleembodiments.

In view of the above description, it should be understood that one ormore sensors 1300 can observe or monitor a travel context of the vehicle100 (e.g., the environment, driving conditions, etc.). From theobservations and/or other information, the dash, head unit, HUD or otherdisplays may be adjusted automatically to assist the driver/passenger.For example, frequent starts and stops in traffic may introduce atemperature gauge to the display to ensure overheating does not occur.New widgets may be added when needed, such as, a temperature gauge whentowing, an altimeter when climbing mountains, a temperature control whenthe outside temperature is over or under predetermined benchmarks, etc.

Any of the steps, functions, and operations discussed herein can beperformed continuously and automatically.

The exemplary systems and methods of this disclosure have been describedin relation to vehicle systems and electric vehicles. However, to avoidunnecessarily obscuring the present disclosure, the precedingdescription omits a number of known structures and devices. Thisomission is not to be construed as a limitation of the scope of theclaimed disclosure. Specific details are set forth to provide anunderstanding of the present disclosure. It should, however, beappreciated that the present disclosure may be practiced in a variety ofways beyond the specific detail set forth herein.

Furthermore, while the exemplary embodiments illustrated herein show thevarious components of the system collocated, certain components of thesystem can be located remotely, at distant portions of a distributednetwork, such as a LAN and/or the Internet, or within a dedicatedsystem. Thus, it should be appreciated, that the components of thesystem can be combined into one or more devices, such as a server,communication device, or collocated on a particular node of adistributed network, such as an analog and/or digital telecommunicationsnetwork, a packet-switched network, or a circuit-switched network. Itwill be appreciated from the preceding description, and for reasons ofcomputational efficiency, that the components of the system can bearranged at any location within a distributed network of componentswithout affecting the operation of the system.

Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the various links connectingthe elements can be wired or wireless links, or any combination thereof,or any other known or later developed element(s) that is capable ofsupplying and/or communicating data to and from the connected elements.These wired or wireless links can also be secure links and may becapable of communicating encrypted information. Transmission media usedas links, for example, can be any suitable carrier for electricalsignals, including coaxial cables, copper wire, and fiber optics, andmay take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generatedduring radio-wave and infra-red data communications.

While the flowcharts have been discussed and illustrated in relation toa particular sequence of events, it should be appreciated that changes,additions, and omissions to this sequence can occur without materiallyaffecting the operation of the disclosed embodiments, configuration, andaspects.

A number of variations and modifications of the disclosure can be used.It would be possible to provide for some features of the disclosurewithout providing others.

In yet another embodiment, the systems and methods of this disclosurecan be implemented in conjunction with a special purpose computer, aprogrammed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integratedcircuit element(s), an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digitalsignal processor, a hard-wired electronic or logic circuit such asdiscrete element circuit, a programmable logic device or gate array suchas PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, special purpose computer, any comparable means,or the like. In general, any device(s) or means capable of implementingthe methodology illustrated herein can be used to implement the variousaspects of this disclosure. Exemplary hardware that can be used for thepresent disclosure includes computers, handheld devices, telephones(e.g., cellular, Internet enabled, digital, analog, hybrids, andothers), and other hardware known in the art. Some of these devicesinclude processors (e.g., a single or multiple microprocessors), memory,nonvolatile storage, input devices, and output devices. Furthermore,alternative software implementations including, but not limited to,distributed processing or component/object distributed processing,parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can also beconstructed to implement the methods described herein.

In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be readilyimplemented in conjunction with software using object or object-orientedsoftware development environments that provide portable source code thatcan be used on a variety of computer or workstation platforms.Alternatively, the disclosed system may be implemented partially orfully in hardware using standard logic circuits or VLSI design. Whethersoftware or hardware is used to implement the systems in accordance withthis disclosure is dependent on the speed and/or efficiency requirementsof the system, the particular function, and the particular software orhardware systems or microprocessor or microcomputer systems beingutilized.

In yet another embodiment, the disclosed methods may be partiallyimplemented in software that can be stored on a storage medium, executedon programmed general-purpose computer with the cooperation of acontroller and memory, a special purpose computer, a microprocessor, orthe like. In these instances, the systems and methods of this disclosurecan be implemented as a program embedded on a personal computer such asan applet, JAVA® or CGI script, as a resource residing on a server orcomputer workstation, as a routine embedded in a dedicated measurementsystem, system component, or the like. The system can also beimplemented by physically incorporating the system and/or method into asoftware and/or hardware system.

Although the present disclosure describes components and functionsimplemented in the embodiments with reference to particular standardsand protocols, the disclosure is not limited to such standards andprotocols. Other similar standards and protocols not mentioned hereinare in existence and are considered to be included in the presentdisclosure. Moreover, the standards and protocols mentioned herein andother similar standards and protocols not mentioned herein areperiodically superseded by faster or more effective equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Such replacement standards and protocolshaving the same functions are considered equivalents included in thepresent disclosure.

The present disclosure, in various embodiments, configurations, andaspects, includes components, methods, processes, systems and/orapparatus substantially as depicted and described herein, includingvarious embodiments, subcombinations, and subsets thereof. Those ofskill in the art will understand how to make and use the systems andmethods disclosed herein after understanding the present disclosure. Thepresent disclosure, in various embodiments, configurations, and aspects,includes providing devices and processes in the absence of items notdepicted and/or described herein or in various embodiments,configurations, or aspects hereof, including in the absence of suchitems as may have been used in previous devices or processes, e.g., forimproving performance, achieving ease, and/or reducing cost ofimplementation.

The foregoing discussion of the disclosure has been presented forpurposes of illustration and description. The foregoing is not intendedto limit the disclosure to the form or forms disclosed herein. In theforegoing Detailed Description for example, various features of thedisclosure are grouped together in one or more embodiments,configurations, or aspects for the purpose of streamlining thedisclosure. The features of the embodiments, configurations, or aspectsof the disclosure may be combined in alternate embodiments,configurations, or aspects other than those discussed above. This methodof disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention thatthe claimed disclosure requires more features than are expressly recitedin each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventiveaspects lie in less than all features of a single foregoing disclosedembodiment, configuration, or aspect. Thus, the following claims arehereby incorporated into this Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as a separate preferred embodiment of thedisclosure.

Moreover, though the description of the disclosure has includeddescription of one or more embodiments, configurations, or aspects andcertain variations and modifications, other variations, combinations,and modifications are within the scope of the disclosure, e.g., as maybe within the skill and knowledge of those in the art, afterunderstanding the present disclosure. It is intended to obtain rights,which include alternative embodiments, configurations, or aspects to theextent permitted, including alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalentstructures, functions, ranges, or steps to those claimed, whether or notsuch alternate, interchangeable and/or equivalent structures, functions,ranges, or steps are disclosed herein, and without intending to publiclydedicate any patentable subject matter.

Embodiments include a device comprising a microprocessor, and a computerreadable medium coupled to the microprocessor. The computer readablemedium includes instructions stored thereon that cause themicroprocessor to receive output from at least one sensor monitoring atravel context of a vehicle, and determine, based on the outputreceived, a condition of the vehicle. The instructions cause themicroprocessor to determine, based on the determined condition of thevehicle, to alter a first presentation of information displayed to adisplay device of the vehicle to a second presentation of theinformation displayed to the display device. The instructions cause themicroprocessor to render the second presentation of the information tothe display device of the vehicle to replace the first presentation ofthe information displayed to the display device of the vehicle. Forexample, the instructions cause the microprocessor to render the secondpresentation based on at least one of one or more preferences of anoccupant, a recurrence frequency of the condition, and a priority levelassociated with the condition.

Aspects of the above device include that the information includes atleast one of vehicle information about the vehicle and environmentinformation about an environment surrounding the vehicle.

Aspects of the above device include that the priority level is based onat least a safety score associated with the condition.

Aspects of the above device include that the instructions that cause themicroprocessor to render the second presentation based on at least oneof the one or more preferences of the occupant, the recurrence frequencyof the condition, and the priority level associated with the conditionby changing at least one of a location, a size, a brightness, and acolor of at least one item of the information on the display device.

Aspects of the above device include that if the condition is determinedto include that the vehicle is traveling in conditions that reducedisplay device visibility, the instructions cause the microprocessor torender the second presentation by at least one of i) changing a size ofthe information on the display device, and ii) altering at least one ofa color and a brightness of the information on the display device.

Aspects of the above device include that if the condition is determinedto include that the vehicle is repeatedly performing one or moreoperations within the travel context related to a certain item of theinformation in the first presentation, the instructions cause themicroprocessor to render the second presentation by moving the certainitem closer on the display device to the occupant.

Aspects of the above device include that that if the condition isdetermined to include that the vehicle repeatedly performing one or moreoperations within the travel context related to a certain item not inthe information in the first presentation, the instructions cause themicroprocessor to render the second presentation by including thecertain item in the information on the display device.

Aspects of the above device include that the instructions that cause themicroprocessor to re-render the first presentation to the display deviceto replace the second presentation in response to a trigger.

Aspects of the above device include that the first presentation is adefault presentation of the information.

Aspects of the above device include that the instructions cause themicroprocessor to render the information in the first presentation andthe second presentation via at least one widget.

Aspects of the above device further include at least one sensor.

Embodiments include a method comprising receiving output from at leastone sensor monitoring a travel context of a vehicle, and determining,based on the output received, a condition of the vehicle. The methodincludes determining, based on the determined condition of the vehicle,to alter a first presentation of information displayed to a displaydevice of the vehicle to a second presentation of the informationdisplayed to the display device, and rendering the second presentationof the information to the display device of the vehicle to replace thefirst presentation of the information displayed to the display device ofthe vehicle. The rendering renders the second presentation based on atleast one of one or more preferences of an occupant, a recurrencefrequency of the condition, and a priority level associated with thecondition.

Aspects of the above method include that the information includes atleast one of vehicle information about the vehicle and environmentinformation about the environment of the vehicle.

Aspects of the above method include that the rendering renders thesecond presentation based on at least one of one or more preferences ofthe occupant, a recurrence frequency of the condition, and a prioritylevel associated with the condition by changing at least one of alocation, a size, a brightness, and a color of at least one item of theinformation on the display device.

Aspects of the above method include that if the condition is determinedto include that the vehicle is traveling in conditions that reducedisplay visibility, the rendering renders the second presentation by atleast one of i) changing a size of the information on the displaydevice, and ii) altering at least one of a color and a brightness of theinformation on the display device.

Aspects of the above method include that if the condition is determinedto include that the vehicle is repeatedly performing one or moreoperations within the travel context related to a certain item of theinformation in the first presentation, the rendering renders the secondpresentation by moving the certain item closer on the display device tothe occupant.

Aspects of the above method include that if the condition is determinedto include that the vehicle repeatedly performing one or more operationswithin the travel context related to a certain item not in theinformation in the first presentation, the rendering renders the secondpresentation by including the certain item in the information on thedisplay device.

Embodiments include a vehicle comprising at least one sensor, amicroprocessor coupled to the at least one sensor, and a computerreadable medium coupled to the microprocessor and comprisinginstructions stored thereon. The instructions cause the microprocessorto receive output from at least one sensor monitoring a travel contextof a vehicle, and determine, based on the output received, a conditionof the vehicle. The instructions cause the microprocessor to determine,based on the determined condition of the vehicle, to alter a firstpresentation of information displayed to a display device of the vehicleto a second presentation of the information displayed to the displaydevice. The instructions cause the microprocessor to render the secondpresentation of the information to the display device of the vehicle toreplace the first presentation of the information displayed to thedisplay device of the vehicle. For example, the instructions cause themicroprocessor to render the second presentation based on at least oneof one or more preferences of an occupant, a recurrence frequency of thecondition, and a priority level associated with the condition.

Aspects of the above vehicle include that the instructions cause themicroprocessor to render the second presentation based on at least theone of one or more preferences of the occupant, the recurrence frequencyof the condition, and the priority level associated with the conditionby changing at least one of a location, a size, a brightness, and acolor of at least one item of the information on the display device.

Aspects of the above vehicle include that the priority level is based onat least a safety score associated with the condition.

Any one or more of the aspects/embodiments as substantially disclosedherein.

Any one or more of the aspects/embodiments as substantially disclosedherein optionally in combination with any one or more otheraspects/embodiments as substantially disclosed herein.

One or means adapted to perform any one or more of the aboveaspects/embodiments as substantially disclosed herein.

The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” “or,” and “and/or” areopen-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive inoperation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, Band C,” “at least one of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” “oneor more of A, B, or C,” “A, B, and/or C,” and “A, B, or C” means Aalone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, or A, B and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. Assuch, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more,” and “at least one” can beused interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms“comprising,” “including,” and “having” can be used interchangeably.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers toany process or operation, which is typically continuous orsemi-continuous, done without material human input when the process oroperation is performed. However, a process or operation can beautomatic, even though performance of the process or operation usesmaterial or immaterial human input, if the input is received beforeperformance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to bematerial if such input influences how the process or operation will beperformed. Human input that consents to the performance of the processor operation is not deemed to be “material.”

Aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of an embodimentthat is entirely hardware, an embodiment that is entirely software(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” or “system.”Any combination of one or more computer-readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer-readable medium may be a computer-readable signalmedium or a computer-readable storage medium.

A computer-readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combinationof the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of thecomputer-readable storage medium would include the following: anelectrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computerdiskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flashmemory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory(CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or anysuitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document,a computer-readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that cancontain or store a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A computer-readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer-readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer-readable signal medium may be any computer-readable medium thatis not a computer-readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device. Program codeembodied on a computer-readable medium may be transmitted using anyappropriate medium, including, but not limited to, wireless, wireline,optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of theforegoing.

The terms “determine,” “calculate,” “compute,” and variations thereof,as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any type ofmethodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.

The term “electric vehicle” (EV), also referred to herein as an electricdrive vehicle, may use one or more electric motors or traction motorsfor propulsion. An electric vehicle may be powered through a collectorsystem by electricity from off-vehicle sources, or may be self-containedwith a battery or generator to convert fuel to electricity. An electricvehicle generally includes a rechargeable electricity storage system(RESS) (also called Full Electric Vehicles (FEV)). Power storage methodsmay include: chemical energy stored on the vehicle in on-board batteries(e.g., battery electric vehicle or BEV), on board kinetic energy storage(e.g., flywheels), and/or static energy (e.g., by on-board double-layercapacitors). Batteries, electric double-layer capacitors, and flywheelenergy storage may be forms of rechargeable on-board electrical storage.

The term “hybrid electric vehicle” refers to a vehicle that may combinea conventional (usually fossil fuel-powered) powertrain with some formof electric propulsion. Most hybrid electric vehicles combine aconventional internal combustion engine (ICE) propulsion system with anelectric propulsion system (hybrid vehicle drivetrain). In parallelhybrids, the ICE and the electric motor are both connected to themechanical transmission and can simultaneously transmit power to drivethe wheels, usually through a conventional transmission. In serieshybrids, only the electric motor drives the drivetrain, and a smallerICE works as a generator to power the electric motor or to recharge thebatteries. Power-split hybrids combine series and parallelcharacteristics. A full hybrid, sometimes also called a strong hybrid,is a vehicle that can run on just the engine, just the batteries, or acombination of both. A mid hybrid is a vehicle that cannot be drivensolely on its electric motor, because the electric motor does not haveenough power to propel the vehicle on its own.

The term “rechargeable electric vehicle” or “REV” refers to a vehiclewith on board rechargeable energy storage, including electric vehiclesand hybrid electric vehicles.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A vehicle, comprising: a plurality of sensors to monitor an exterior environment surrounding the vehicle; a microprocessor; and a computer readable medium coupled to the microprocessor and comprising instructions stored thereon that cause the microprocessor to: identify, from sensor output, an exterior environment condition surrounding the vehicle; determine a priority level associated with the identified exterior environment condition; determine, based on the priority level associated with the identified exterior environment condition, to alter a first presentation of information currently displayed by a display device of the vehicle to a different second presentation of the information to be displayed by the display device, the second presentation comprising one or more of additional information not contained in the first presentation and different positioning in the display of information in common with the first presentation; render the second presentation to the display device of the vehicle to replace display of the first presentation; and upon occurrence of a selected triggering event associated with the identified exterior environment condition, re-render the first presentation to the display device of the vehicle to replace the second presentation.
 22. The vehicle of claim 21, wherein the microprocessor generates, from sensor output, a three-dimensional representation of the vehicle exterior environment including one or more objects exterior to the vehicle, and identifies the identified exterior environment condition from the representation and wherein the microprocessor assigns each pixel of the three-dimensional representation a depth value based on an elapsed time between a light source emitting light and the camera receiving the light after reflection by the corresponding object, a magnitude of the priority level being related to a level of vehicle safety, wherein each of a plurality of different possible exterior environment conditions is associated with a different priority level.
 23. The vehicle of claim 21, wherein the microprocessor determines a safety score for the identified exterior environment condition, the priority level being based on at least a safety score associated with the identified exterior environment condition, and a weighting factor associated with the safety score and determines the priority level based on the safety score and associated weighting factor, wherein each of a number of possible exterior environment conditions is associated with a predetermined respective safety score and weighting factor, and wherein the microprocessor determines the priority level by mapping the identified exterior environment condition to the number of possible exterior environment conditions.
 24. The vehicle of claim 23, wherein the microprocessor assigns the priority level to the identified exterior environment condition by evaluating the priority score against one or more thresholds associated with a number of different possible priority levels.
 25. The vehicle of claim 21, wherein the selected triggering event is a determination by the microprocessor that the identified exterior environment condition has remained unchanged over a selected threshold time interval or an operator is no longer operating the vehicle and wherein the first and second presentations differ in one or more of a size of the selected information displayed, a color of the selected information displayed, a brightness of the selected information displayed, and a position of the selected information in the display.
 26. The vehicle of claim 22, wherein the exterior environment comprises a road condition, traffic condition, nearby vehicle, vehicle route, vehicle altitude, and an external temperature, wherein the plurality of sensors comprise a plurality of a camera to collect images of objects external to the vehicle, vibration sensor to detect vehicle vibration, altitude sensor to determine vehicle altitude, temperature sensor to determine ambient temperature external to the vehicle, ultrasonic sensor to detect object movement external to the vehicle, and pressure sensor to detect ambient pressure external to the vehicle, and wherein the additional information comprises a temperature gauge, an indication of four-wheel drive operation, an altitude of the vehicle, a speedometer, an engine temperature gauge, a battery level, an odometer reading, a weather condition, and a vehicle spatial location.
 27. The vehicle of claim 21, wherein the priority level depends on a number of detected instances of the identified exterior environment condition over a selected time period and a threshold number of instances associated with the priority level.
 28. The vehicle of claim 21, wherein a third presentation of the selected information has an associated third priority level and second exterior environment condition, wherein the second presentation has an associated second priority level and is associated with the identified exterior environment condition, wherein the second priority level is higher than the third priority level, wherein the microprocessor identifies that the second temporary condition is occurring concurrently with the identified exterior environment condition, and wherein the microprocessor uses the higher second priority level of the identified exterior environment condition rather than the lower third priority level of the third exterior environment condition in selecting the second presentation.
 29. The vehicle of claim 21, further comprising an onboard rechargeable power source and an operator input device to maneuver a charging device of the vehicle into a charging position to receive a charge from an aerial vehicle.
 30. A method for operating a vehicle, comprising: providing a vehicle comprising a plurality of sensors to monitor an exterior environment surrounding the vehicle, a microprocessor, and a computer readable medium coupled to the microprocessor; identifying, by a microprocessor from sensor output, an exterior environment condition of the vehicle; determining, by the microprocessor, a priority level associated with the identified exterior environment condition; determining, by the microprocessor and based on the priority level associated with the identified exterior environment condition, to alter a first presentation of information currently displayed by a display device of the vehicle to a different second presentation of the information to be displayed by the display device, the second presentation, for the identified exterior environment condition, comprising one or more of additional information not contained in the first presentation and different positioning in the display of information in common with the first presentation; rendering, by the microprocessor, the second presentation to the display device of the vehicle to replace display of the first presentation; and detecting, by the microprocessor, that a selected triggering event associated with the identified exterior environment condition has occurred; and in response to the detecting, re-rendering the first presentation to the display device of the vehicle to replace the second presentation.
 31. The method of claim 30, wherein the microprocessor generates, from sensor output, a three-dimensional representation of the vehicle exterior environment including one or more objects exterior to the vehicle, and identifies the identified exterior environment condition from the representation and wherein the microprocessor assigns each pixel of the three-dimensional representation a depth value based on an elapsed time between a light source emitting light and the camera receiving the light after reflection by the corresponding object, a magnitude of the priority level being related to a level of vehicle safety, wherein each of a plurality of different possible exterior environment conditions is associated with a different priority level
 32. The method of claim 30, wherein the microprocessor determines a safety score for the identified exterior environment condition, the priority level being based on at least a safety score associated with the identified exterior environment condition, and a weighting factor associated with the safety score and determines the priority level based on the safety score and associated weighting factor, wherein each of a number of possible exterior environment conditions is associated with a predetermined respective safety score and weighting factor, and wherein the microprocessor determines the priority level by mapping the identified exterior environment condition to the number of possible exterior environment conditions.
 33. The method of claim 32, wherein the microprocessor assigns the priority level to the identified exterior environment condition by evaluating the priority score against one or more thresholds associated with a number of different possible priority levels.
 34. The method of claim 30, wherein the selected triggering event is a determination by the microprocessor that the identified exterior environment condition has remained unchanged over a selected threshold time interval or an operator is no longer operating the vehicle, and wherein the first and second presentations differ in one or more of a size of the selected information displayed, a color of the selected information displayed, a brightness of the selected information displayed, and a position of the selected information in the display.
 35. The method of claim 31, wherein the exterior environment comprises a road condition, traffic condition, nearby vehicle, vehicle route, vehicle altitude, and an external temperature, wherein the plurality of sensors comprise a plurality of a camera to collect images of objects external to the vehicle, vibration sensor to detect vehicle vibration, altitude sensor to determine vehicle altitude, temperature sensor to determine ambient temperature external to the vehicle, ultrasonic sensor to detect object movement external to the vehicle, and pressure sensor to detect ambient pressure external to the vehicle and wherein the additional information comprises a temperature gauge, an indication of four-wheel drive operation, an altitude of the vehicle, a speedometer, an engine temperature gauge, a battery level, an odometer reading, a weather condition, and a vehicle spatial location.
 36. The method of claim 30, wherein the priority level depends on a number of detected instances of the identified exterior environment condition over a selected time period and a threshold number of instances associated with the priority level.
 37. The method of claim 30, wherein a third presentation of the selected information has an associated third priority level and second exterior environment condition, wherein the second presentation has an associated second priority level and is associated with the identified exterior environment condition, wherein the second priority level is higher than the third priority level, wherein the microprocessor identifies that the second temporary condition is occurring concurrently with the identified exterior environment condition, and wherein the microprocessor uses the higher second priority level of the identified exterior environment condition rather than the lower third priority level of the third exterior environment condition in selecting the second presentation.
 38. The method of claim 30, further comprising an onboard rechargeable power source and an operator input device to maneuver a charging device of the vehicle into a charging position to receive a charge from an aerial vehicle.
 39. A method for operating a vehicle, comprising: providing a vehicle comprising a plurality of sensors to monitor an exterior environment of the vehicle, a microprocessor, and a computer readable medium coupled to the microprocessor; identifying, by the microprocessor and from output of the sensors, an exterior environment condition of the vehicle; determining, by the microprocessor, a priority level associated with the identified exterior environment condition, a magnitude of the priority level being related to a level of passenger safety; determining, by the microprocessor and based on the priority level associated with the identified exterior environment condition, to alter a first presentation of selected information currently displayed by a display device of the vehicle to a different second presentation of the selected information to be displayed by the display device, the second presentation, for the identified exterior environment condition, having a higher degree of passenger safety than the first presentation, wherein the microprocessor determines a safety score for the exterior environment condition, the priority level being based on at least a safety score associated with the exterior environment condition, and a weighting factor associated with the safety score; rendering, by the microprocessor, the second presentation to the display device of the vehicle to replace display of the first presentation; detecting, by the microprocessor, that a selected triggering event associated with the identified exterior environment condition has occurred; and in response to the detecting, re-rendering, by the microprocessor, the first presentation to the display device of the vehicle to replace the second presentation wherein the selected triggering event is a determination by the microprocessor that the identified exterior environment condition has remained unchanged over a selected threshold time interval or an operator is no longer operating the vehicle, wherein the exterior environment comprises a road condition, traffic condition, nearby vehicle, vehicle route, vehicle altitude, and an external temperature, wherein the plurality of sensors comprise a plurality of a camera to collect images of objects external to the vehicle, vibration sensor to detect vehicle vibration, altitude sensor to determine vehicle altitude, temperature sensor to determine ambient temperature external to the vehicle, ultrasonic sensor to detect object movement external to the vehicle, and pressure sensor to detect ambient pressure external to the vehicle and wherein the additional information comprises a temperature gauge, an indication of four-wheel drive operation, an altitude of the vehicle, a speedometer, an engine temperature gauge, a battery level, an odometer reading, a weather condition, and a vehicle spatial location.
 40. The method of claim 39, wherein the microprocessor generates, from sensor output, a three-dimensional representation of the vehicle exterior environment including one or more objects exterior to the vehicle, and identifies the identified exterior environment condition from the representation, wherein a third presentation of the selected information has an associated third priority level and second exterior environment condition, wherein the second presentation has an associated second priority level and is associated with the identified exterior environment condition, wherein the second priority level is higher than the third priority level, wherein the microprocessor identifies that the second temporary condition is occurring concurrently with the identified exterior environment condition, and wherein the microprocessor uses the higher second priority level of the identified exterior environment condition rather than the lower third priority level of the third exterior environment condition in selecting the second presentation. 